2024 Fiber Projects
Five winters have passed since we celebrated the news that Kanokla had been awarded an RUS Reconnect 50/50 grant/loan to connect our Shidler, Wynona, Foraker, Webb City, and Grainola communities to Kanokla’s expansive backbone network with fiber optic connectivity; bringing millions of opportunities to our members in Osage County.
The second attempt (and second contract) to complete the Section 106 archeological environmental report is finished. RUS is asking for more clarification on a few areas, knowing the scrutiny Osage Nation Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO) will require. They are past the projected timeline to get this work done. Once it is perfected, RUS will then hand the report to Osage Nation THPO, who will have 30 days to review and approve. We are finally in the final stretch of the longest race imaginable. It is worth millions, and we will CELEBRATE!
USDA Rural Utilities Services provides funding for infrastructure improvements in rural communities. The Farm Bill is many things, and one of the pushes this year is to make the RUS Reconnect pilot program a permanent feature. Reconnect Round 5 awards are about to be announced, and the program has been successful in favoring fiber optic connectivity in our remote rural regions. Kanokla’s award was Round 1, announced publicly in April of 2020.
At a face-to-face meeting in Washington DC this month, discussing the obnoxious delay in Section 106 environmental requirements for this project, Andrew Berke, the RUS Administrator and Laurel Levierre, the Assistant Administrator, apologized for our situation and said there are sadly two other companies still waiting to start along with Kanokla. As I shared the pain and dismay we feel in Oklahoma, the gasps of breath around the room added to the uneasiness of the conversation.
I’ve learned get-with-it-ness isn’t part of the program. USDA personnel turns over frequently, and that very little efficiencies can be found in the process, as archeology firms start their process over for each project no matter that six of us are already in the ROW ditches along Highway 60. The painstaking process actually involves pain and staking.
Our members in Shidler, Wynona, Webb City, Grainola, and Foraker are patiently waiting for the day we begin. Other projects are approved as time feels it is at a standstill. We have maximized our time with fill-in projects along the way, but it is disheartening to count the millions of minutes and opportunities our members have missed out on.
In Osage County alone, the broadband grants-in-waiting are numerous. Both Kanokla and Osage Nation have been awarded RUS Reconnect grants of various rounds. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded Osage Nation several Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP) awards. The FCC awarded grants for Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) locations and Connect America Fund (CAF) rounds 1 and 2. Meanwhile, the Oklahoma Broadband Office (OBO) is daily made more aware of the many layers of broadband projects awarded over the years that are in progress or should be. OBO has awarded a handful of projects in Osage County in their recent ARPA grants this year.
The efficiencies of connecting these communities to Kanokla’s existing robust network with electronics in place helped us win the grants. Fiber optic to every home and business will bring economic, educational, healthcare, and social benefits to the friends and neighbors that live and work in Cherokee and Medford. Our fixed wireless network has served both communities for over 20 years, but we live in a windswept prairie with lightning, tornadoes, fire and ice, which takes a toll on our exposed equipment. We are proud and excited to convert this technology into buried fiber optic connectivity that will last 40 years or more under the ground! It is lower maintenance and higher efficiency over the long haul, and as a rural communications provider, we specialize in long haul.
Leveraging state funds, we will construct the entire city limits of both communities, burying once to save any future construction costs. Construction is ahead of schedule in Cherokee. This project will take 4-5 months of construction and splicing, and another 3-4 months of installation of equipment on the homes and businesses. Once the contracted construction crew finishes laying the fiber in, they will move east on Highway 11 to Medford and begin constructing a city-wide network in Medford.
The Kansas Office of Broadband Development (KOBD) awarded Kanokla two grants this year as well! We are connecting unserved and underserved locations east of Anthony to tie them into our existing network at Freeport, Bluff City, and Manchester. The most recent award was announced just last week, connecting the rural farmland south of Wellington between Wellington and our member areas of South Haven, Perth, Corbin, and Mayfield. We plan to wrap up the Anthony project this fall and the rural Wellington project in 2025.
Kanokla is also assisting Kaw Nation with a fiber optic construction project in their tribal headquarters of Kaw City, OK, which will connect to our existing network across the bridges to the east. Their project was awarded by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program within their Internet for All initiative, funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Fingers crossed for a 7th grant before year-end! Maximizing this unusual window of opportunity of grant dollars to build broadband infrastructure, Kanokla partnered with NWOSU (Northwestern Oklahoma State University) to bring fiber optic connectivity to their rodeo practice facilities – Go Rangers! Up to 80 rodeo students work out daily over a 3-hour time span while needing to connect to classroom work, veterinary telehealth, work, family, safety and emergency services for students and their horses. Student athletes balance educational goals with practice and competition time, and we’re excited to bring fast, efficient and robust broadband to their area. We’ll tie this arena and neighborhood into our existing fiber network in Capron.